A rude awakening

[cncproadwarrior]

When I built my last HO layout 20+ years ago, it was cork roadbed glued to a 4x8 plywood base. Everything ran smoothly. No problems.

So when I decided to jump back into it, I decided to go two levels with a ramp to and from the top level (6" high - 3.5" grade) on a 12x8 layout. Twenty inch radius curves. I'm using extruded foam. I love the methodology. The foam is easy to work with and the caulk is cheap.

I used 3 pieces of 2" foam 4 inches wide caulked together for the top level that goes around the outside of the layout. Almost half the top level is scratch made bridge. What can I say, I love bridges.

Since I wanted to see some trains running before the layout was finished, I caulked cork roadbed onto the top level. Then I laid the track down but did not yet caulk it to the foam. It's held in place by some nails so it is not secured yet and is rather flimsy.

I was like a kid on Christmas morning looking at all the presents under the tree. My sound equipped Atlas SD40-2 started chugging along on DC with about 8 cars in tow. I only had 1 wire from each track to the transformer. DCC in down the road.

Then, a rude awakening. I got a derailment. The front truck of the loco went up over the rail and derailed. That had never happened to me on my previous layout.

After some investigating, I noticed that the track was not completely level all over. There were small inequities in height from one piece of foam to the next and between the foam and bridges. I saw the small variances in height at certain spots but didn't think they were enough to cause problems. And I haven't even gotten to the turnouts and crossovers yet!!

My question is, with enough time and effort, can I eventually expect my layout to run 100% derailment free? Or is this a pipe dream?

 

[Larry]

Model railroading takes a lot of work to make everything work right. It's not something you can just jump into overnite & expect everything to work the 1st time unless you are a mechanical engineer & you know the difference between a bump, a stump, a grunt & a Crap I can't beleive I did that. Have fun. The rewards are fantastic. Take your time.
HAPPY MODEL RR'ing.

 

[Selector]

Yes, absolutely, you will soon develop the eye and the skills to tweak trackwork of all kinds so that your engines and cars run through them forwards and backwards, pulling and shoving without derailments at all but break-neck speed.

Getting there, though, will be a toughy. You have to pace yourself, be critical, but not hard on yourself. Make yourself be observant, acknowledge your successes and rejoice in them. Note the failures and learn from them.

The quality of engines has improved substantially because we asked for it. Now we have to pony up on our skillsets. Fair is fair, right?

By the way, you can count on each new engine that you introduce to your layout to point out the occasional flaw in your rails. It has been the case with me, diesel, steamer, it doesn't matter. Two months ago I got fed up with shimming one rail on a two foot length so that my new BLI UP 2-10-2's tender would stay in the rails and finally got pliers and tore up a whole 3' length of nicely ballasted and weathered flextrack. I redid it all the right way and was rewarded with the engine giving me a wink as it trundled along the new section without a derailment. I think I growled back.

 

[hamltnblue]

Most definitely. You can absolutely have a trouble free layout if you take your time and watch your cars run. I have found the hard way that when setting up a new section you have to run every engine and your worse case rolling stock load through it. some engines find defects that others will roll right through. If you think you see something out of line fix it because there will be a car that doesn't like it. With each engine run slowly and look for the trucks lifting up and shim the track as necessary. It takes time but in the end its worth it. Also try to up your radius to 22 inch min if possible. The wider the radius the less problems.
Good Luck

 

[kbaker329]

Model railroading takes a lot of work to make everything work right. It's not something you can just jump into overnite & expect everything to work the 1st time unless you are a mechanical engineer & you know the difference between a bump, a stump, a grunt & a Crap I can't beleive I did that. Have fun. The rewards are fantastic. Take your time.
HAPPY MODEL RR'ing.

Shoot, Larry, I am a mechanical engineer and I can't always figure that stuff out!

My advice is patience. Most of the stuff I've either done wrong or am not happy with on my layout is because I got in too big of a hurry to see what it would look like. So I spend twice the amount of time, or more, doing something that should have taken one try if I had just done it right to begin with.

Keith Baker

 

[UP2CSX]

Considering the fact you only had temporary track laid down, I would be surprised if you didn't have a derailment. Todays engines have finer wheels and flanges compared to the older Athearn blue box engines so they are more sensitive to bad trackwork. When you get to the point that you're ready to start doing pemanent track work, having both the roadbed and the track level, staight, and kink-free is the key to a trouble-free railroad. No layout is 100% free of derailments but you can get awfully close if you really pay attention to your trackwork during construction and don't move on to scenery until you have your trains running right.

 

[stationmaster]

Even the BIG railroads have derailments. Not to have them is "un-prototypical". It's not a perfect world.

Bob

 

[RCH]

Two words: belt sander.

Go over your roadbed until you've leveled it, or at least smoothed it out. Then caulk your track into place. Place trains on track and enjoy!

 

[cncproadwarrior]

Two words: belt sander.

Go over your roadbed until you've leveled it, or at least smoothed it out. Then caulk your track into place. Place trains on track and enjoy!

I like that idea!!!!

 

[NYW&B]

Warrior, it sounds to me like you are in way too much of a hurry to get things running. Getting your track set in place properly is of the highest priority and way too many modelers rush into it and then wonder why their trains operate poorly, or derail.

The subroadbed, in this case the foam board, needs to have all the joints between separate pieces sanded until the surfaces match exactly and your fingers can't feel any transition between pieces. Laying the cork roadbed has to be done on a very thin bed of adhesive so as to avoid any bumps or irregularities. Pieces of cork should have their joints staggered so that there is no point at which a break extends completely across the roadbed. Then, once your cork roadbed is set in place, the top of that too should be lightly sanded flat and any open joints or gaps filled. When the track is set in place, rail joints should also be staggered, especially on curves and the connection points soldered properly. On completion of this, it is good advice to run you finger all along the rails to see if any irregularities are felt at the joints and if so, file or sand these off.

I go year to year without a single derailment or track problem, having done my track as outlined above but I can say that I known relatively few other hobbyists that can make that claim because they've failed to devote the time necessary to do the job the right way.

NYW&B

 

[stationmaster]

One can always use the "track inspection car" or make one. One my most useful tools. I use it when laying track. Even then I may have the errant car that needs repair Wheel sets that are plastic seem to have flaws at times.

You may be able to greatly reduce derailments, but you can never escape the one car, or engine, that just waits for the opportunity to make you look bad in front of someone. Happens every time. Murphy's Law #518.

And checking a "temporary" section of track and road bed prior to gluing it down is a waste of time. The test comes when the section is finished and the first car roll over the rails. And the second....and the third....

Bob

 

[IronBeltKen]

You've heard alot of very good advice so far, I won't bother repeating it. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, is the effect of wood warping due to variaitions in humidity. That might not be an issue for you if all of your track sits on a subroadbed of extruded foam. My layout, OTOH, has track on a variety of subroadbed materials. I did 95% of the things NYB&W described, and for ~2 years I enjoyed trouble-free performance of properly-tuned rolling stock. Then one day after having not operated for a few months, I started seeing derailments in a spot where they never used to occur. When I took a closer look, I noticed that the track was slightly kinked, because the benchwork wood had shrunk from drying up.

It's always something..!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

You've heard alot of very good advice so far, I won't bother repeating it. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, is the effect of wood warping due to variaitions in humidity. That might not be an issue for you if all of your track sits on a subroadbed of extruded foam. My layout, OTOH, has track on a variety of subroadbed materials. I did 95% of the things NYB&W described, and for ~2 years I enjoyed trouble-free performance of properly-tuned rolling stock. Then one day after having not operated for a few months, I started seeing derailments in a spot where they never used to occur. When I took a closer look, I noticed that the track was slightly kinked, because the benchwork wood had shrunk from drying up.

It's always something..!

Ain't that the truth!!! LOL!!

Really, I'm finding that patience, continual learning(ARGH!!Back to school!! ohno ohno), and more patience comes out of all this.

As well as hands as steady as a safecracker's, the patience of an international diplomat(OK bad analogy---), the eyes of a scanning electron microscope---for all the small pieces,----well you get the picture